Peach players part of history’

Friday

Oct 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 26, 2007 at 10:05 AM

Twenty-one Rockford Peaches were among more than 70 players from the former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who reunited Thursday at a dinner buffet and autograph session at Midway Village.

Chris Green

Sure, baseball, hotdogs and apple pie are a slice of Americana, but in these parts, you can add Peaches, too.

Twenty-one Rockford Peaches were among more than 70 players from the former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who reunited Thursday at a dinner buffet and autograph session at Midway Village.

The Peaches have had numerous gatherings over the years since the 1992 debut of a “League of Their Own,” depicting the Rockford team, but this was the first time the league has held a reunion in Rockford, one of four charter AAGPBL cities.

For some, it was the first time they have been to the Forest City since their playing days 50 years ago. Ranging in age from their early 70s to late 80s, the women returned full of life and stories.

Dolores “Pickles” Lee-Dries of Jersey City, N.J., played for the Peaches from 1952-54. The last time she was in Rockford was in the mid-1990s when a plaque was dedicated to the Peaches at the Seminary Street and 15th Avenue site of Beyer Stadium, where the Peaches played their home games.

Lee-Dries, 73, an infielder and pitcher, was part of a groundbreaking league, and after her playing days she continued to break new ground for women, becoming one of the first female police officers in Jersey City.

“I finished first in the physical fitness and the written tests,” she said. “I was in tiptop shape.”

From the time she was 9 years old, Lee-Dries said her goal in life was to play professional baseball and to become a police officer.

“Daddy said, ‘If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.’ ”

She said her fondest baseball memory in Rockford was simply making the team.

Another memorable moment came after the league had folded, and Lee-Dries was barnstorming around the country on a 15-woman baseball team playing exhibition games, often against men.

“I was 18 and playing third base in a game in Minneapolis. I threw the ball to first the way I pitched, right over the top,” she said.

Blessed with a plus-arm, Lee-Dries said she uncorked a bullet of a strike to the first baseman.

“Just then, Eddie Stanky came running out onto the field and shook my hand. He said, ‘I sure wish ... you were a guy.’”

Mary Pratt, 88, of Quincy, Mass., is a left-handed pitcher and former 21-game winner who played for the Peaches in 1943, 1946 and 1947 and for the Kenosha, Wis., Comets in 1944 and 1945.

Pratt also is a retired educator who taught just about every grade between kindergarten and undergraduate classes at Salem State College.

It’s been 15 years since Penny Marshall’s blockbuster movie blew the dust off the all-female league and the women who made it special.

“I never thought I would be a part of history, but I really am,” she said. “It’s surprising and gratifying to know I’ve had an impact on children’s lives.”

Staff writer Chris Green can be reached at 815-987-1241 or cgreen@rrstar.com.

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